In Mid December, Tracey Parker took over from the now happily retired Terry Romain, as Business Development Officer with the Frontenac Community Futures Development Corporation (FCFDC).

Two and a half months into the job, Parker said she is “absolutely loving it”. She said she is able to use many of the skills she has developed in her diverse educational and working career to bear and is happy to be “working with small businesses where you can see the impact of what you are doing.”

After completing a Bachelor of Commerce at Queen’s, she moved to Toronto and worked in marketing and technology. Over time, she developed interest in how businesses can make use of information to make better decisions in developing short and long term goals. To that end she completed and MBA with a focus on Information Technology.

After moving to the Kingston region, she did consulting work while raising a family and then spent 8 years at Empire Life dealing with business processes.

“About a year ago I decided it was time for a major shift in focus, and I left Empire Life and started my own hobby farm business north of Murvale, just inside of Frontenac County. I did that for a season and during that time I came to the CFDC as a client. When Terry decided to retire I thought this was a great opportunity.”

As Business Development Officer at the CFDC, Parker is spending about half of her time overseeing the loan portfolio, freeing up the rest of her time to do consulting with local business.

She said that her background in the strategic use of information, when combined with the skills of IT consultant Max Sadlowski in the use of technology, has already turned out to be useful to their clientele.

“We seem to have easily come to a separation of duties and we have been working very well together,” she said.

The number of businesses who are accessing CFDC services is on the rise as well.

“Within a week after our quarterly newsletter came out in January, ten new people contacted me.”

She has been meeting primarily one to one with business owners but thinks there would be a benefit to bringing different people together, not only to make efficient use of her time, but also to help build connections in the business community. She is setting up her first workshop for later in March. The geography of Frontenac County has made it difficult for business owners to get to know each other and despite some attempts there are no Chambers of Commerce type organisations in Frontenac County, which she sees as a gap.

“A lot of businesses are doing everything on their own.”

The brand ambassador exercise that Frontenac County has undertaken is making a difference, however, and it comes about as the CFDC and the County Economic Development department are forging a stronger working relationship.

Out of that relationship, Tracey Parker, small scale hobby farmer, is about to learn as much as she can about the large scale goat dairy business.

The county is looking at the possibility of providing a supply of goat milk for Feihe International, which is setting up in Kingston, and they came to the CFDC to talk about capacity building for this new challenge.

“I am now going to be seeking some training opportunities so we have some sense of all of the issues that come with starting a goat dairy,” she said.

When she applied for the Business Development Officer job there was no way she could have known that her business experience, expertise in business processes and information, and interest in farming, would all come together over goats.

All that and the ability to commute for only 15 minutes in the opposite direction of rush hour twice a day. Not a bad gig so far.

It’s safe to say that a company of the size and wealth of Feihe International has never expressed an interest in doing business in Frontenac County before. As we saw from the census just last week population growth in Frontenacs not only lags badly behind the rest of the country, it lags behind the region. We also aging faster than most other places. If we are going to keep schools open, keep a business community afloat, an injection of money and jobs is just the ticket to reverse a worrying downward spiral and rejuvenate the local economy.

On the other hand nothing about the rich history of agriculture in the county has been on an industrial. Factory farming is not envisioned in our Official Plans, strategic plans or stated economic development priorities. In fact it runs counter to the promotion of small-scale food, craft and tourism businesses that have sprung up in recent years. The most powerful constituent group in the county, the up to 20,000 seasonal property owners, pay high taxes not for roads or bridges but for clean water and environmental stewardship.

Participating in a large way in the development of intensive goat farming, which is what Feihe needs, will require not only an entrepreneur who is willing to invest and also make an effort to develop local expertise, it will also require a change in the way Frontenac County sees itself.

There was significant resistance to wind turbines in North Frontenac. They are seen as a threat to the pristine wilderness. There is resistance to a 13 home subdivision in Hartington because it may impact the water table. The potential impact  of a goat farm with thousands of animals living in a confined space on neighbouring properties is big. Even in China, where large scale operations are common,  Feihe’s farming practices have had their detractors.

An article published by phys.org this past December, says that in China there has been  “an economic boom and government backing transforming dairy into a $40-billion-a-year industry, shifting production away from small-scale producers towards massive megafarms with up to 10,000 cattle—and a lot more waste.

“‘The smell of the manure... in the summer it's very intense,’ said Ren Xiangjun, a farmer in Gannan county. Pointing at a stream of green water escaping from under a grey brick wall at the giant farm owned by agro-conglomerate Feihe International, he added: ‘You can see how it flows right out of the farm.’”

The article describes manure piled up like a mountain, and quotes villager from Daxing, near on of the Feihe farms: “There are no advantages for us. There is just pollution and noise.”

While the situation would be different in Frontenac County. Farms could be smaller but they would still have to be of a scale that is beyond anything we have ever seen.

Sooner or later a discussion will need to take place in Frontenac County about how this opportunity should be dealt with.

There are those who will say we should stay as far away as possible, and there are others who will want to consider the opportunities this offers for community development, with caution. As a business owner I see opportunities, but as a homeowner I’m not sure I would want to live next to a 10,000 goat operation.

Before Frontenac becomes the “Goat capital of Canada” we need to figure out what that means and whether we can live with the consequences.

The Frontenac News is developing an online business directory as a key piece of a new website we are launching on April 1st, our favourite day of the year.

Frontenac-Live.ca will be a companion site to our popular Frontenacnews.ca site.

It is oriented to providing information to Frontenac County residents about services and attractions throughout the county, from where to find a plumber to where to launch a boat, how to find a cottage for a week in the summer, where to buy groceries or a burger and fries, or who grew the largest pumpkin last year.

Frontenac-Live is also devoted to serving the tourist industry by featuring parks, trails, lakes, and unique businesses that make Frontenac County a great place to live and visit.

A central feature of the site will be a comprehensive business directory.

Any and all businesses based in Frontenac County can be listed for free in the directory.

We need to hear from anyone who sells anything in Frontenac County, from those who do snow removal to massage therapists, from welders to small engine mechanics and syrup producers and more.

Free listings include name, address, phone  number, email, and a general category (retail, food and beverage, services, accomodation/real estate, and artisans)

These listings will not only go into the Frontenac-Live directory, they will also be provided for use in a business directory which will be hosted by Frontenac County.

We believe there are well over 1,000 businesses in Frontenac County and we want to list them all in these two online directories.

We will also be updating both directories on an annual basis, a key factor in keeping them useful for potential customers, both local ones and those from away. The directories will be useful for permanent residents and the up to 20,000 seasonal residents who make Frontenac County their home for part of the year.

In addition to the free listings we have developed opportunities for enhanced listings for the Frontenac-Live site. These will include a full description of all of the services available from each business, the ability to post photos and video and be listed under multiple sub-categories,  links to web and social media locations and other web content. They will also be directly accessible through google searches. Enhanced listings will also be featured, on a rotating basis, on the Frontenacnews.ca site which attracts 18,000 unique visitors per month. The introductory offer for an enhanced listing is $60 per year (it will go up to $72 when the site is launched)

Anyone who provides a service in Frontenac County is asked to contact us via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Max Sadlowski will be bringing his Internet Technology expertise to Frontenac and L&A counties, courtesy of a program that is being offered by the Frontenac Community Futures Development Corporation and the County of Lennox and Addington.

The program includes a series of workshops about practical ways rural business owners can make use of digital technology to cut costs, attract new customers, and maintain or hire new staff.

The first workshop that is being offered is about the use of Shopify and other online sales systems to expand to markets far from home, and the second is a more general one, Online Marketing 101, which covers everything from developing a basic web profile to setting up and updating websites, using mobile technology, etc.

Full information about the date and location of the workshops is available at the project web page on the Frontenac CFDC website. Go to Frontenaccfdc.com and look for the workshops tab

Max Sadlowski worked with small and medium businesses in Toronto before moving to Kingston 1 ½ years ago to expand his business. He established Spotlight Learning, an in-home tutoring company, in short order, and after setting up a website, social media and other tools for the business, he received enquiries from other Kingston businesses asking for advice on enhancing or establishing their own web presence. That soon led to him setting up his own consulting business, while his mother continues to run Spotlight Learning.

In the first few weeks since taking on the project in Frontenac and L&A, Sadlowski said he has learned a few things already.

One is the scale of the need and desire for more digital tools in the rural areas.

“I under-estimated the need. Online marketing and sales, even on a basic level, often sinks to the bottom of the to-do list for businesses because people are so busy dealing with customers and getting through the day. But with the new tools that are always being developed, there are easy, low-cost ways to use many tools that can be implemented quickly and cheaply,” he said.

The project will run into 2018. Given the changing nature of online tools, topics for workshops and other services will be constantly under development.

“We will talk to the businesses about their challenges and goals and since things are changing so quickly in the tech world, we will always be looking at new solutions that are coming on stream. For example, new systems for accepting payment through credit and debit cards have just come on stream and they can make it easier and cheaper for businesses to get into. These are things that we can offer now that I might not have been able to three or six months ago,” he said.

In addition to workshops, the project includes one on one consulting in some cases. Everything that is available can be found on the project home page.

To take advantage of Tech Coaching, if your business is located in Frontenac, please contact Anne Prichard, Frontenac CFDC, 613-372-1414 ext. 204 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. If your business is in Lennox and Addington, please contact Stephen Paul, Director, Community & Development Services, 613-354-4883 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The FAB (Food and Beverage) region was one of the focal points of the Frontenac Community Futures Development Corporation’s Annual General Meeting on June 14.

One of the presenters at the event was Back Forty Cheese of Mississippi Station in North Frontenac. Jeff Fenwick of Back Forty, outlined the role that the marketing of the FAB region and the incentives and support provided by the FCFDC played in the decision he made with his wife Jenna to move each of their businesses to Frontenac County from Lanark County.

Anne Prichard, executive director of the Frontenac CFDC, also talked about some of the new initiatives being undertaken by the Wolfe Island Grill and Seed to Sausage.

The Food and Beverage Region was set up by Hastings, Lennox and Addington and Prince Edward Counties and the Frontenac CFDC, but even before that, Anne Prichard was working hard to promote craft brewing as a business opportunity in Frontenac County. The FCFDC was involved with the founding of MacKinnon Brothers Brewery, which is located in nearby Bath, but until now there has not been a craft brewer in Frontenac County.

That is all changing, however, because Rene Ziegelmaier - a Brazilian of German descent – is poised to open the Wolfe Island Craft Brewery. Working in conjunction with Casey Fisher from the Wolfe Island Grill, Ziegelmaier is going to be renovating the former Kraft building on Wolfe Island, which has been used to house a ship-building operation, and turning it into a brewing and bottling plant.

Zielgemaier said he is interested in brewing some of the traditional German beer styles such as lagers and Pilsners, but also some of the modern imperial stout and pale ale styles. These are taking off as Ontario beer drinkers expand their horizons because of all the new breweries that are being established.

He is also looking at setting up a tap room somewhere in downtown Kingston as part of the roll-out of his business, which will all be happening in 2017.

“Rene is passionate about making beer and that was a key element in all this,” said Anne Prichard.

The FCFDC also announced that their loan portfolio has reached its highest levels since they were established some ten years ago.

The County of Frontenac invites you to attend the 2015 Sustainability Workshop, free of charge. Space is limited, so please register early.

This year’s workshop will be a little different - the county’s definition of sustainability includes four pillars: environmental, economic, social, and cultural. Rather than trying to tackle all four areas, this year’s workshop on October 22 will focus on economic development through a sustainability lens.

Participants will help build an inventory of existing assets, identify gaps within the county, and create a focused vision for "Made in Frontenac" economic development in the years to come. Anyone who wants to help make the Frontenacs a better place to live, visit, and do business is welcome to attend. Those who are very familiar with the county and anyone with a particular interest in economic development is especially encouraged to be there.

New faces are always welcome. Background information can be provided ahead of time, and an introduction at the workshop will bring all participants up to speed.

The workshop takes place on Thursday, October 22, 11:30am – 4pm at Kingston Frontenac Rotary Auditorium in Fairmount Home, 2069 Battersea Rd.

RSVP to Angelique: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 613-548-9400 ext 301.

Close to 60 maple syrup producers from across eastern Ontario attended the Fall Maple Field Day event organized by the Lanark and District Maple Syrup Producers Association, which took place at three different locations in and around Sharbot Lake and McDonalds Corners on September 19.

Hosted by Mel and Joyce Conboy, and George and Darlene Conboy and their families, as well as the owners of Wheeler's Pancake House near McDonalds Corners, the event attracted producers from as far away as Cornwall, and Bancroft, with the majority of participants attending from the Lanark area. Participants visited both the Conboy family facilities and later in the day met at Wheeler's in McDonalds Corners for a tour of their state of the art facility and lunch.

The event offered producers tips on how to improve their production and the quality of their product, and included tours and talks at both of the Conboy family facilities, which are on the cutting edge of maple syrup production techniques.

At Mel and Joyce Conboy's, Bev Campbell of Lapierre Equipment spoke in depth on the topic of maple syrup density and the international grading system, and his power point presentation included looking at the latest methods and tools available to producers to improve grading reliability.

Just down the road at George and Darlene's, Bruce Gillilan of Leader Evaporator of Vermont spoke on the topic of the off flavours that can occur during the production process and the ways producers can avoid flavour contamination, which can occur as a result of chlorine, detergents, paints, metallics, plastics, filters and more.

Also in attendance at the field day was Terry Hoover, the new president of the Ontario Maple Syrup Producers Association (OMSPA), who himself owns and runs a certified organic, forced air wood-fired maple syrup facility in Atwood, near Listowel, Ontario, where his 1900 taps produce close to 600 gallons per year. Hoover said the event is unique in that it gives producers an opportunity to share information and to network with other producers across the province. “When it comes down to sales, the maple syrup industry like every other industry is competitive, but when it comes to the sharing of information, unlike other industries we like to open our doors to one another”. Hoover jokingly called the event “a legalized form of snooping” and said that the industry is unique in that way.

With 500 members in OMSPA and a tag line that reads, “Tap into the Knowledge”, Hoover's advice to people interested in getting involved in the industry is to become a member of the organization and to attend the OMSPA's annual information day, which will take place on Saturday, January 30 in McDonalds Corners. “Whether you have just two taps in your backyard or you are thinking about setting up a 20,000 tap operation, we at OMSPA have the resources people need.”

Hoover likes to make a personal guarantee that people who attend the Field Day events will come away having learned something new. For more information about OMSPA, visit their consumer website at www.ontariomaple.com. The association will be launching a new site for producers in the next few weeks and you can visit it at www.omspa.ca

In an effort to share ideas and to encourage networking amongst the area's local small business owners, members of the Central Frontenac Development Committee held their most recent “Business over Breakfast” event at the RKY camp in Parham, where camp staff served up breakfast and offered guests a cozy and campy backdrop to the meeting.

Though just 20 guests attended, a wealth of important information was shared with small business owners thanks to committee member Karen McGregor, who is also the coordinator at St. Lawrence College's Employment Services located in Sharbot Lake.

McGregor spoke on a number of topics, including the hiring incentives that are available through St. Lawrence, and how business owners can use social media to improve their business profile, build their customer base and promote their services.

On the first topic, McGregor spoke of the various supports her organization offers small businesses, one of which is to help find a job matching process that would work for employers, and which could include planning a job fair, collecting resumes, or providing pre-training to potential employees. Employee training could include health and safety training, WHMIS (Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System), and more and McGregor said that these types of training opportunities would ensure that potential employees are properly trained for new jobs. Once an employer decides whom they wish to hire, the employer can then access certain incentives that can help support the employee for several weeks and that could support them through the initial transition period until they are working independently in the new job.

Regarding social media McGregor stressed, “It is free, it is out there and for business owners who say they do not have the time, they should get someone to do it for them. It takes just a few minutes a day and it will definitely pay off in the long run.”

One idea that came from the meeting was for the CF Business Development Committee to start a local community business association, which would help small businesses promote the products and services that they offer. “We feel that as a network of businesses in a rural area, we would have more strength in a group than we do independently and that many of our marketing and advertising campaigns could be coordinated so that they could be more effective and less costly.”

The CF Business Development Committee has plans to coordinate a local business association list in order to have a comprehensive data base of all the businesses in the area. McGregor said she was very surprised to learn at the meeting that many people who attended, some of whom have lived in the community for as long as 50 years, have never been to the RKY camp before. “That really surprised me and is just another indicator that we have a wealth of resources in our community that we are not tapping into. By forming a local business association, we can share that information so that everyone is getting equal billing and opportunities can be made apparent so that we do not have go outside our community to find what we need.”

Those who missed the meeting but who might be interested in being a part of community business association can visit the Central Frontenac Development Committee's Face book page.

Local elected representatives Randy Hillier (MPP) and Scott Reid (MP) have voiced their support in principle for the North Frontenac and Addington Highlands Economic Development Group.

The group, which is made up of investors, is preparing economic development proposals for the two communities in an effort to increase opportunities in the region while preserving the beautiful natural environment.

The North Frontenac and Addington Highlands Economic Development Group define themselves as “a group of local investors and entrepreneurs who are dedicated to encouraging economic development that complements the Township’s mission and vision. Our investment goals are to enhance year round accommodations and associated activities for visitors and the residential community, provide employment and skill development opportunities and sustain our natural and pristine environment.”

“There have been recent energy proposals made that would limit and negatively impact future development and further contribute to rising electricity costs for everyone if they were to proceed,” remarked Hillier. “The draft proposals I have seen from the North Frontenac and Addington Highlands Economic Development Group offer much longer term benefit, jobs, and tourism opportunities.

“Wind turbine proposals should not go forward unless they have the support of the community, period,” added Reid.

North Frontenac council has already voted their community an unwilling host for industrial wind turbines; Addington Highlands has yet to have a final vote on the matter.

A capacity crowd breakfasted and networked at the Frontenac Community Futures Development Corporation’s (FCFDC) Annual General Meeting at the Verona Lions hall on June 18.

Board chair Jan Dines introduced the organization’s board, staff, and committee members as well as the attending dignitaries and guests speakers. Following the elections, Dines let the numbers speak for the organization, whose mandate is to provide business counseling and loans to support small business growth, which they continue to do successfully.

In the past fiscal year, 2014-2015, a total of $1,232,751 in loans was dispersed, the most ever for the organization, and that included 29 new loans. These loan values have increased by 17.36% in the past year, and the impact from the loans on jobs has been substantial. Last year they created 14 new full-time jobs, five new part-time jobs, and maintained an additional 72.

Dines spoke of the organization’s recent new partnerships with Launch Lab, Futurpreneur and St. Lawrence College. She spoke of the FCFDC's strategic plans and how these strategies continue to be met by supporting local businesses, vibrant communities, tourism and accommodation, awareness of services offered and FAB (the food and beverage region).

Following Dines’ talk, a number of guest speakers who have benefited from support from the FCFDC made presentations. The first was Ian Stutt of Patchwork Gardens, a certified organic farm and CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) business located in Battersea. Loans from the FCFDC enabled Patchwork Gardens to purchase new equipment, build new infrastructure, and to explore marketing and branding to grow the business, which supports two families. Ian gave a history of the farm and its growth since he began farming in 2004 and he thanked the staff at the FCFDC and board members for their ongoing support over the years. Cindy Cassidy, manager of the Eastern Ontario Trails Alliance and Anne Marie Young, manager of economic development with the County of Frontenac, spoke about the FCFDC loans that have supported local trail development throughout the county.

Lastly, Scott Runte of Launch Lab, a provincially funded regional innovation center that provides business advice and support to entrepreneurs throughout Ontario through 17 centers, spoke about how the organization, in partnership with the FCFDC, assists entrepreneurs. Launch Lab is all about entrepreneurs helping entrepreneurs and staff work one on one with new businesses owners, helping them to grow and succeed. Runte spoke of the often lonely and difficult road that new business owners face and how Launch Lab can offer much needed support and advice when they are just starting out.

Wrapping up the meeting were a number of presentations made to board members leaving the organization, after which the guests had an opportunity to mingle and network. For more information about the loans and other support services that the FCFDC offers, visit www.frontenaccfdc.com or call 613-372-1414.